Is « excellence » masculine or feminine?
« excellence » is feminine. You say l'excellence.
Article forms
| With the definite article | l'excellence |
| With the indefinite article | une excellence |
| With the partitive article | de l'excellence |
Plural
The plural is excellences (les excellences). A noun keeps its gender in the plural; only the article stops showing it.
Why the gender
excellence ends in
-ence. Nouns ending in
-ence are usually feminine,
so excellence follows the pattern.
The full rules by ending cover every common
suffix.
In a sentence
-
On connait par les fleurs l'excellence du fruit.
We know by the flowers the quality of the fruit. -
L'étudiant s'est efforcé d'atteindre l'excellence.
The student strove for excellence. -
Nous étions stupéfiés de l'excellence des dessins du garçon.
We were amazed at the excellence of the boy's drawings.
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. Each links to its source sentence.
Related words
Other common nouns that end the same way:
Common questions
Is « excellence » masculine or feminine?
« excellence » is feminine. You say l'excellence.
« l'excellence » hides the gender. Is « excellence » masculine or feminine?
It is feminine. The article shortens to « l'excellence » for both genders, but you say une excellence, not un excellence, and adjectives take the feminine form.
Check another word, or read the complete guide to French noun gender.